Vegetable slicer



Oct. 11,1927.

1 v. MLECOCH VEGETABLE SLICER 2 Shets-Sheet 1 Filed July '7, 1926 Oct. 11, 1927.

T. V. MLECOCH VEGETABLE SLICER Filed Jul y v, 1926 2 SheetsSheet 2 as, W

Patented Get. 11, 1927.

UNITED STATES THOMAS V. MLECOGH, OF ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA.

VEGETABLE SLICER.

Application filed July 7, 1926. Serial No. 120,988.

This invention relates to vegetable slicers of that character wherein there is provided a cylinder having a hopper and knives mounted within the cylinder with means for bringing the pieces of vegetable into contact with the knives.

The general object of the present invention is to provide a device of this character which is particularly adapted for cutting string beans into shortlengths forcanning or preserving and also to provide mechanism of this character which is capable of being changed so as to be used for cutting up asparagus or other relatively long vegetables Another object is to provide means whereby the extremities of the beans may be trimmed off prior to cutting the beans into small bits.

Still another object is to provide a construction of this character which may be readily assembled or disassembled and thus may be readily cleaned and in which the knives may be removed for sharpening.

Other objects will appear in the course of the followingdescription.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein Figure 1 is a front elevation of a vegetable slicer constructed in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section thereof;

Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section through the vegetable slicer;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of one of the blades;

Fig. 5 is an end elevation of one end plate; i

Fig. 6 is a front elevation of the auxiliary cutter disk.

Referring to these drawings 10 designates a supporting frame which is provided with the downwardly extending legs 11 or brackets and with a clamp 12 and a set screw 13 whereby the frame may be clamped upon a table. This frame at its upper end is formed to provide a circular collar 14 and disposed within this collar and supported thereby is a cylinder 15 open at the bottom and provided with the downwardly extending wings 16 defining this discharge opening and provided at its upper portion with a hopper 17. The opposite ends of this cylinder are initially open but that end of the cylinder which is adjacent the supporting frame 10 is closed by means of a circular end plate l8. Extending through this end plate, which end plate fits within the upper por tion 1a of the frame, is a square shaft 19, there being a square opening in the end plate through which this shaft passes. This shaft has attached to it the crank handle 20 by means of the set screw 21 which extends longitudinally into the shaft. The opposite end of the cylinder 15 is partially surround; ed by a collar 22 which extends, as before stated, partially around the cylinder to provide a discharge opening at the bottom of; the collar.

Disposed upon the extremity of the shaft 19 and within the collar '22 is a disk 23 havinga projecting hub portion 24 through which a set screw 25 passes to hold the disk upon the shaft. The disk is formed with a central square opening. Mounted against the hub portion 23 is a diametrically extending 'knife 26 having reversely curved edges at its ends, this knife being held tothe hub 24: by means of the screws 27. The collar 22 has a faceplate 28 formed withlthe openings 29 and 30 whose function will be later described,'these openings being adapted to be covered by pivoted shields 31 and 32 respectively. The central portion of this end plate28 has a hub 88 through which the reduced end of the shaft 19 passes, this reduced end of theshaft being cylindrical so as to rotate in the bearing opening of the plate 28. screw-threaded for the reception'of the wing nut 34:. It will be noted. that the opening .30 is relatively small and the opening 279 relatively large, The opening 30 permits the ends of string beans to be inserted through the opening to permit the ext-remities of the beans to be cut off by the knife 26while the opening 29 is to permit the insertion of relatively long vegetables such as asparagus, which vegetables are toolong to be placed within the hopper 17, as will be later described. 1

The cylinder 15 at one side of the hopper is provided with a plurality of knife slots and adapted to be disposed through these slots are a plurality of knives 36, illustrated in Figure 4. Each of these knives is formedwith a flange 37 at its upper end and this flange is riveted upon a knife carrying plate 38 which rests upon the upper face of the cylinder 15 and is held in place by buttons 39 pivoted to the collars 14 and 22.

The extremity of the shaft is thickness of a knife blade.

- defined by the flanges 16.

Thus, the knives may be readily inserted or may be readily removed for cleaning.

Mounted upon the shaft 19 and rotating therewith are a plurality of sprockets or spiders 40, each having a square aperture through'it-s center for the passage of the shaft 19 and each formed with a plurality of outwardly projecting arms 41. The faces of these arms merge into each other by a curved surface 42 asshown in Figure 3, and the'arms have a width e ual to the distance between the knives 36. *ach of these spiders -or sprockets is formed with an outwardly projecting hub portion 43 having a thickness equal to the thickness of the knives 36 to thus space the arms of the sprockets from each other :-'a distance equal to the It will be obvious that when the beans'or other relatively short vegatables are dropped'into the hop per 17' and'the crank handle is rotated, the arms of the spiders will act to carry the beans or other vegetables around and against and past the knives, thus slicing the beans into relatively short sections which will drop down through a discharge opening In'theuse of this device, the ends of the beans are first snippedoif by inserting'the ends of the beans inthe opening and re tatingthe shaft by means of the handle. The knife 26 will thus cut off the extremities of the beans. WVhen a sufficient number of beans have had their. ends snipped ofi', the

' beans are fed into the hopper 17 and as the handle is rotated, the beans will be cut into small sections by'the knives 36.

This cutter may also be used for slicing other vegetables than beans provided the '23 is also provided with a set screw.

vegetables are of a diameter permitting them to be engaged by the arms 41 andcarried past the knives or provided thatthe vegetableshave been cut into lengths permitting this. It is often times the case,

L however, that it is desired to slice or seetionrelatively long vegetables such as asparagus and in this case the end plate 23 with its knife 26 is disposed against the end plate 18 with the knife 26' facing toward this end plate 18. The end spider 42 :is, of course, removed and replaced upon the opposite endof the shaft 19, in place of the end plate 23. The spider 40 which is thus shifted, is provided with a set screw in its hub whereby the spider may be held rigidly upon the shaft'and the hub of the end pliigte y transposing the spider 1O and the end plate 32 the intermediate spiders or sprockets will be held in proper spaced relation to coordinate with the knives 86. The asparagus or other vegetables are inserted through the opening 29 until their ends bear against the flat face of the plate and then the handle 20 is rotated to carry the mass of stalks past of such a length that it may drop into the hopper the device may be operated in the same manner as in cutting up beans.

It will be seen that this construction is such that it may be readily disassembled for cleaning'and that the knives may be removed without the necessity of entirely disassembling themachine and that it is an easy matter to remove the sprockets 10 for cleansing purposes. A number of knife plates 38 may be provided for each machine and varying from each other in the number of knives carried so as to cause the beans or other vegetables to be sliced into shorter or longer pieces as desired. Where vegetables suiiiciently short to be placed in the hopper are being sliced, the shields 31 and 32 may be shifted to cover the openings 29 and 30 to thus prevent any danger of the operator cutting himself on the knives 26 or getting his fingers caught by the sprockets 41.

WVhile I have illustrated a particular form of my invention which I regard as thorough- 1y effective, I do not wish to be limited thereto as many changes might be made in the details shown without departing from the spirit of theinvention as defined in the appended claims.

Iclaim:-

1. A vegetable slicer of the character de scribed comprising a cylinder having a hopper and having a discharge opening below the hopper, a shaft passing longitudinally through the cylinder, a plurality of members mounted upon the shaft and having radiating arms, the members being spaced from each other, a plurality of knives mounted upon and extending through the cylinder and into the paths of movement of said arms, and a knife plate upon which said knives are detachably mounted, the knife plate being detachably engaged with the cylinder whereby the knives may be removed or inserted as a unit from or into the cylinder.

2. A vegetable slicer of the character described including a cylinder closed at one end, an operating shaft passing through the cylinder, spiders mounted upon the shaft and having radiating arms, the spiders bea plurality of spiders having radiating arms mounted upon the shaft, the spiders being spaced from each other, a plurality of knives carried by the cylinder and disposed in planes extending between said spiders, means whereby vegetables may be inserted through one end of the cylinder into the paths of movement of said arms, and means for rotating the shaft.

4. A vegetable slicer including a supporting frame, a cylinder engaged with the supporting frame at one end, a collar mounted upon the other end of the cylinder and having a disk extending transversely of the cylinder, the disk being formed with openings,

a shaft passing longitudinally through the end plate and rotatable therewith, said shaft being operatively supported at its other end in said disk, an end plate mounted upon said collar and carried by and rotatable with the shaft, and acting to close this end of the cylinder, said end plate having a hub and a knife carried upon said hub and rotating past the openings in said disk.

5. A vegetable slicer of the character de scribed comprising a cylinder, a supporting frame embracing the cylinder at one end, the supporting frame being provided with a table clamp, the cylinder being formed with a hopper and with a discharge opening OP,

posite the hopper, a rotatable end member disposed within the supporting frame and closing one end-of the cylinder, a square shaft extending through said end member and rotating therewith, a collar mounted upon the opposite end of the cylinder and having an inwardly extending plate formed with openings and having a central bearing for the extremity of the shaft, and an end plate disposed inward of said last named,

THOMAS V. MLECOCH. 

